The Hell Season (26 page)

Thomas heard laughter, lowered his gaze to see Ron jumping up and down like a madman, swinging his cane around and shouting, “Yes! Oh, yes!”

An eclipse
, thought Thomas as he looked once again to the sky, freeing a hand to shield his eyes against the glare, as the rational, thinking part of his brain assumed control once more.
What we’re witnessing is a solar eclipse
.

In practically no time at all, the red sun was effectively blotted from the sky and the world was claimed by darkness. A low droning sound began to emanate from the dome. It was a voice, barely audible at first, pitched in a low key, almost inhumanly so, that gained in volume as additional voices were layered upon the first. Thick with reverberation, it gave the impression of originating at the end of a long tunnel. Or at the bottom of a deep chasm. To Thomas’s mind came the image of a demonic choir, rows of horned devils dressed in black robes, heads tilted back and open mouths lined with curved, pointed teeth as they looked upward toward the top of the unimaginably deep hole beneath the black dome.

Staring at the dome in the darkness, with that full-throated droning sound filling the still air, Thomas’s eyes were drawn to the runes. For a few brief seconds he thought he understood their meaning, was on the verge of turning to Dana and telling her the terrible message they contained when he noticed that the runes had started to glow. A dull red at first, the arcane symbols were soon beaming their patterns out into the surrounding gloom. It was at this moment that Ron started calling out numbers.

“Ten! Fourteen! Thirty-eight! Sixty-two! Seventy! Eighty-nine!” His voice was shrill, maniacal. He couldn’t stop jumping about.

After the six numbers were announced the demons went into the crowd and dragged the people with the corresponding brands upon their arms toward the dome. Shouting erupted and there were those who tried to interfere with the demons. These people were knocked viciously to the ground or given a jolt with the spine weapons the creatures wielded. Each of those pulled from the crowd were roughly escorted to a different archway—none were led to the larger, seventh opening—and disappeared inside. Screaming could be heard, terrified and shrill, then silence. The demons emerged from the dome and Ron called out six more numbers. Another half a dozen people were dragged out of the crowd. And then the process was repeated for a third time. Quite fortunately—or did luck have anything to do with it?—Thomas, Dana and Tanya were not called. After the third round of sacrifices no one else was led to the dome.
Three rounds of six
, thought Thomas. Too easy to see the symbolism there. All the while the droning sound had increased in volume and perhaps marginally in pitch. It was the only sound to be heard. That and the heat and the horror at what he had just witnessed were the whole of Thomas’s world.

“Let’s do this!” Ron shouted before he himself turned and entered the dome through the largest of the seven archways.

There came another sound from the dome, the whirring and hissing and clanking of some great machine come to life. Thomas knew that sound. A couple of weeks back he had stood nearby and watched as a new lift was put into place, this one with a steam driven engine and an enclosed compartment with a door that could be latched shut. Perfect for lowering someone—if anyone wished to undertake such a journey—into the depths of the abyss. And for bringing someone up, of course. He wanted to turn and run, to shout at Tanya and Dana that they had to get away, to shout at everyone. But he knew that there would be no point in such an action. They were still trapped within this town. They would be hunted down like animals. Killed? Now that the dome was complete and their services as laborers were no longer required? Possibly. Thomas had no idea as to the extent of Ron’s control over the demons. Or how much of a friend he still considered Thomas. Besides, there was a part of him that wanted to see how everything was going to play out. See how it ended. He looked around, saw Gerald and his Reborn friends off to the left, Patricia and some of her friends to the right. None of them were fleeing. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who felt the way he did. Or maybe they were just too terrified to move.

Ron emerged from the dome looking quite solemn, even a little afraid as though the level of his responsibility in all that was taking place had set in on him. The demons exited the dome too. They all gathered near the seventh archway just as a heavy mist, about waist high, started to pour forth out of the dome’s entranceways like some stage effect at a 1980’s heavy metal concert.

The runes glowed ever more brightly. The droning sound rose in volume along with a distorted hum that made Thomas think of a powerful electrical charge. The elevator at the heart of the dome clanked and whirred, clanked and whirred…

People backed away as the fog drifted toward them. Still, no one fled. It was as though everyone was transfixed by the spectacle before them. And then, without warning, the clanking and the whirring and the humming stopped. The droning, however, went on. The sky remained dark. As Thomas watched, the demons knelt along either side of the gem-encrusted roadway leading away from the seventh archway. Fog billowed from the opening there, like dragon’s breath on an ancient, frigid day.

“Kneel!” shouted Ron. “Everyone! Kneel!”

Thomas managed to ignore the urge to run coursing through his body. Instead, he followed the command given by a lunatic in a red tuxedo, a man he had once considered his friend. Thomas knelt. All around him, people were doing the same. As he watched, a figure emerged from the fog and the black archway of the seventh opening. Like a child frightened by an imaginary monster, he wanted to close his eyes until the source of his fear went away. But he was not a child. He had not run and he would not close his eyes. Whatever came next, he would watch and he would bear witness. And if he was able he would see it all the way through to the end.

The figure became more distinct as it slowly walked out along the roadway. It had the appearance of a man. Tall, even more so than the demons kneeling at his approach. He was naked to the waist, dressed only in a pair of loose black pants and boots. Unlike the demons, his skin was not red but the white of newly fallen snow except for where it was marred along the cheeks, the chest and torso with what appeared to be a network of scars traversing the map of his flesh. Atop his head rested a crown made of some glowing, black metal, a simple ornament with a lone, blood red jewel set into the front of it. He walked with a noticeable limp, aided by a long staff, rune-carved and made of some black wood clutched tightly in his right fist. His body was lean and muscular. His hair long, black, and fine as it draped down over his broad shoulders. The face, despite the scars that marred it, was possessed of some strange, otherworldly beauty. His features were regal—high cheekbones, strong jaw, full lips—and those eyes… Twin orbs of blackness in which Thomas could see, even from where he knelt at a distance of thirty or so feet away, a cold and burning hatred for all that they beheld.

“All hail Lucifer!” shouted Ron, his voice edged with madness and epiphany, just as he fell completely prostrate on the ground at the feet of the imposing figure before him.

So here he is
, thought Thomas.
The most blessed of all God’s children.

The Devil
.

Judging from the myriad scars that marred his flesh, it would seem that Satan’s fall from grace and his time in Hell had not been kind to him.

At the roadway’s midpoint Lucifer stopped and stared out over those kneeling before him. When those black eyes looked his way Thomas lowered his head and stared at the ground, unable to meet that gaze and the pure, unbridled malice burning there. The droning sound died away and then there was only silence as Lucifer stood there. No one made a sound. No one moved. It seemed as though the crowd gathered there held its collective breath.

Lucifer laughed, a gentle, mirthful sound that belied the rage in his eyes. Then he spoke:

“I suppose I owe you all some level of gratitude for bringing me here.” His voice was soft, almost musical, carried easily in the silence to the ears of everyone gathered there. “And I am thankful, truly I am. To demonstrate this I have decided not to kill you all, at least not right away—even though it is in my heart to do so—to murder each and every last one of you. Slowly. Terribly. It’s nothing personal, I assure you. But you must understand that the very sight of you, the very sight of this world that you inhabit, is an affront to me. In all of it I see the handiwork of my father, Dread Emperor that he is. I was to have dominion over the realm from which you were summoned, over each and every one of you. It’s why your world, your entire universe, was created in the first place. I was his favorite. It was intended as a gift to me. But when Father had finished, when he took the time to look upon what he had done, he changed his mind. ‘Something else,’ he told me. ‘Not this, though. Not this.’ I was furious. And who wouldn’t be? Tell me, who wouldn’t be?”

A touch of anger had crept into the melodious voice, the barest hint of it, more than enough to make Thomas quiver.

“I reminded him of his promise. I demanded that he keep it. And that was where I made my mistake. ‘You demand?’ he asked of me. ‘You dare?’ And so he cast me out.
Me!
His favorite. The most beloved and perfect of all his creations. Worse than that, he cast me
down
. Tore off my wings and threw me from the very edge of Heaven. I fell for what seemed a thousand years. But I didn’t fall alone. By also casting out those I held dearest, Father figured it would cause me even more suffering. And he was right, of course. He was right...

“Eventually we came to rest in a black and burning realm. No daylight. Only darkness, everlasting and suffocating, driven back by the glow of the lava and the fire that coursed and erupted throughout that miserable place. There we were destined to stay until the end of time. Or until the Dread Emperor turned away, created some new plaything, some new diversion, some other universe to occupy his ancient and unfathomable musings. Only then, when he wasn’t watching, might we hope to ascend, to come here and take what revenge we could. To destroy the very realm he once loved more than anything in existence. A love I can only hope he remembers when he sees it all burning and in ruin.”

The words filled Thomas to overflowing with their passion, their anger, their hatred, and yes, their insanity. He couldn’t help himself, he wept. He could hear the sounds of weeping all around him. He wept for what had been done to this beautiful, once perfect being before him.

“It will start here, in this cast off world. A long ignored place where my presence will not be immediately noticed. The perfect place to stage my rebellion, to discover just how much Father’s influence has waned. Now that I’m here, now that I’m free of that... prison... I’m afraid there’s really no limit to what I can do.”

That’s when Thomas noticed the hair standing up on his arms, could feel it rising up on his head, like the very air surrounding him was alive with electricity.

He raised his eyes and looked to where Lucifer stood. The fallen angel held his staff high, had turned away from those gathered before him, was looking toward the dome. Thomas could see where the wings would have once emerged from Lucifer’s back, just below the shoulder blades, where now there were only two lumps of scar tissue, cruel reminders of what had been done to him, of what he had once been.

No wonder the hatred
, thought Thomas despite himself.
No wonder the insanity
.

Lucifer shouted a string of words that Thomas did not understand but, nonetheless, caused the breath to catch in his throat just as the top of the dome exploded. The heavy, rune-carved pieces from which the building had been constructed rained down upon some members of the crowd gathered there, badly injuring some and killing others. One section landed in front of Thomas an arm’s length away. As he watched, winged creatures came streaming up through the shattered dome, spread out and hovered a hundred feet or so above the heads of Thomas and his fellow survivors. The eclipse shifted, allowing a bit more of the crimson light to seep into the sky, granting a better view of the flying creatures. Thomas knew that he had seen them before, during the hallucination inflicted upon him by the insect powder. Winged demons, with long, barbed tails similar in appearance to those that had been born of the Great Worm but slightly smaller, clutching various weapons in their clawed hands—all manner of whips and clubs and long, pointed instruments. Dana was next to him, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream. Tanya placed an arm around her, held her close. To calm her? To keep her from dashing away aimlessly as many other people were doing? Thomas was about to tell Tanya to follow him, although he really had no idea where he would lead the two women. Away from where they were, certainly. Anywhere else had to be better. As he opened his mouth to speak, some new phenomenom distracted him. Instead of issuing the command to leave, he pointed and shouted:

“Look! The sky!”

More shouts, other exclamations of fear and surprise erupted from all around him. Near the eclipse a hole had opened in the darkness, a bright, radiant circle that evoked a startled cry from the steadily growing numbers of winged demons hovering in the air.

“
No. It can’t be!
” The voice shook the ground. “
You will not take this from me!
”

Thomas looked to the where Lucifer stood, his pale, scarred flesh seemingly aglow in the ethereal light streaming down from the heavens, head tilted back and rune staff pointed toward the sky. “
Not this time!
”

Shifting his attention, Thomas saw what appeared to be the onset of a battle taking place in the air above him. A different group of winged figures was descending from the opening in the sky and closing ranks with the demons. These new arrivals were mere specks at first but grew in size and definition the lower they came. They wore long robes that fluttered about them, were taller with wider wingspans than the demons. Thomas watched as members of these two disparate groups came together, grappled with one another and tumbled through the air.